Practice Management

EBay purchased the patents that MercExchange had accused Ebay of infringing.   So, what did EBay infringe upon that cost it a $30 million judgment?  Software?  No.  An unusual product?  No.  It was the bold and highly unusual, really revolutionary, idea (reach concept) that you can purchase a product online for one, fixed, predetermined, exact, advertised price.

WHY DID I NOT THINK ABOUT BEING ALLOWED TO SELL A PRODUCT, ANY PRODUCT, FOR A PREDETERMINED, EXACT PRICE!!!!!!!!!!!  It is truly ingenious, is it not?  Who would ever thought that you could go online, or go in any story in this country, or order out of any catalog, a product or a service for a pre-determined, fixed, exact, advertised price.  To think that you can buy something in a store for the price actually marked on the box or package!  Amazing!  The person at MercExchange that thought of this must have been some kind of Einstein.

Well, I am not an Einstein, but I am a Newton.  Here is my idea.  Nobody steal it.  I think I am going to patent the idea of gravity.  A force, caused by the rotation of the earth, that keeps everyone planted firmly on terra firma.  And then, when I get my patent filed, I am going to sue everyone of you for violating my patent and require everybody on earth to pay me royalties unless you elect to start floating freely about the planet.

This is complete lunacy.  What is worse is that courts and juries, reading the stupid law, actually take the matter seriously.

Now that EBay owns the so-called patents, what is that we lawyers can expect?  If we offer our services for an hourly rate, but will accept instead a fix fee of a particular amount (as happens for example in almost every consumer bankruptcy in the country), then are we apt to be sued by Ebay?

I am not certain why MercExchange went out of business, but I can almost bet that a complete analysis will reveal that it was not because EBay allowed product to be offered at a fixed price.